In order to make it to the second wedding of the summer, Paul and I boarded flights and made our way to Vouliagmeni, a beachy suburb of Athens miles away from the city itself. Everything about this part of the trip was a bit of a challenge. We arrived in the dark; our taxi driver got lost several times; our accommodation check in was fraught by language barriers. But arrive we eventually did into the arms of Pauline, one of my former lovely NBH colleagues, who now lives in France.
A few details of our accommodation stand out in particular. The weather was hot and humid and we couldn't get the air conditioning to work. The mosquitos were vicious. The beach was literally outside our window. And so was the late night 4am beachside party. Cue one miserable night. In the next day's sunshine, we finally ascertained that the air-con was trip wired to the windows and the kitchen window was open a millimetre of a crack.
We spent much of the day hiding in the shade and recovering from the previous night's lack of sleep. The wedding would be held that night, at 6pm, at one of the area's most sought after Greek Orthodox churches, St George's Orthodox Church. Gil and George told their guests the wedding started at 6 so everyone would be on time; in reality, the wedding started at 7 and so we got to watch the setup and take down of two weddings before Gil's and one after it. It turns out this little Vouliagmeni establishment is a bit of a summer wedding mill.
Inside, the church held very few people and so all the ceremonies were held outside, in the baking hot sun. In its defense, the church did make an excellent backdrop to a wide array of photos.
The ceremony was entirely in Greek and some the traditions resembled those of a Mexican mass. The priest, a long-bearded stereotype of an Orthodox priest, chanted the whole mass from start to finish.
Gil, who'd been baptised in the Greek Orthodox church in London a few weeks before, really had no idea what was going on. But she smiled and walked and followed along like a trooper. And she looked stunning.
And thirty minutes after it had begun, it was over and Gil and George were married. Cue rice throwing, an aggressive overhand Greek style of rice throwing to shower the bride and groom with all your luck for their future, if they survive the rice attack.
From there, it was a fairly standard Western wedding. Photos, jump in a car with complete strangers disguised as George's family whose language you don't speak to head to the reception, wait for the bride and groom who, as is custom, show up comically late to their own party. Then cake, souvlaki, first dance, shots of something with the bride and groom at each table, and our personal favourite...the circle dancing.
This is some next level dancing. Men, women, children gather around to dance in circles for hours into the night. Circle left, circle right, everyone join in. The men usually start it off, call it an old school peacocking, by kicking their legs in the air and spinning themselves silly. And really, this Greek dancing is take no prisoner, last person standing.
The only breaks the Greeks took were when the Western music played. And then all the younger, Taiwanese or exclusively English-speaking crowd took the floor for a boogie. Before the circle dancing returned. And then we too were enveloped into the circle; as I said, it was take no prisoner.
We left around 12:30 but Gil and George stayed until the bitter end, 4am, when George's 65-year-old uncle decided he'd had enough. For them, the next day was filled with wedding paperwork and a bit of drama when the priest filled in Gil's nationality on the wedding certificate with the People's Republic of China and not the Republic of China (Taiwan), two VERY different places.
Despite this, we (by we I mean Gil, George, her sister Lulu, her husband, Kieran and Gil's cousin) found ourselves on the same ferry to Naxos the next evening. Because island hopping with friends is the only way to follow a Greek wedding. Gil and family stayed in George's mum's island home and we stayed in a hotel in the main part of town. But meet up we did. It was unconventional and a little bit wonderful.
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